VIJAYAWADA: Expressing concern over the sheer wastage of human organs in India on account of the lack of awareness and sentiments that dissuade people from donating the organs of their near and dear ones who are brain dead, experts wished that medical science could one day enable retrieval of organs from persons who died of cardiac arrest so that the growing requirement of transplantation could be met to a larger extent.
“It is very difficult to counsel the families of the brain-dead to donate organs as people tend to hope against hope that recovery is possible. This is because the body functions normally even after the brain is dead, unlike in the event of cardiac arrest. The fact is, chances of surviving brain stem death are very slim. A cadaver can gift life to at least eight persons battling for their life due to end-stage organ failure or trauma,” they observed in a National Symposium on Organ Donation organised by the Appropriate Authority for Organ Transplantation of Andhra Pradesh (Jeevandan) and city-based NGO Mukhi Media on Sunday.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr. S. Subramania Iyer, Head of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Kochi), explained the complexities of transplantation and stressed the need for spreading awareness about the utility of donating organs.
Credited with India’s first hand transplantation, Dr. Iyer narrated the saga of a 29-year-old man, Manu, who lost his hands when he was pushed off a running train by hooligans and how he ‘came back into this world’ due to the donation of hands by a donor.
Dr. Iyer also shared his gratifying experience of transplanting the hands of an Afghan Army Major who lost both his hands in a landmine blast, and that of several others who approached him with severed limbs.
National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation director Dr. Vimal Bhandari and Jeevandan Chief Transplant Coordinator G. Krishna Murthy dwelt on making organ donation more popular against the backdrop of some strong negative perceptions and the practical problems faced by the governments and medical fraternity.
